Category Archives: Creativity

People Hate Them on Yelp

Business Communication, Creativity

 

A few months ago, I wrote about my interviews with owners and managers of local restaurants – many of whom were not at all shy in voicing their negative opinions about Yelp.  Part of their frustration, I think, comes from businesses’ inability to “opt out” of Yelp.   For example, one manager I spoke with said: “I wish I could remove my business from their site.”  But Yelp lists businesses whether they want to be listed or not.

I just learned about a West Coast restaurant that has been waging an anti-Yelp campaign and exercising its agency in an unusual way: by offering customers a discount if they post 1-star reviews of their business.  Yep, you read that right.  They are encouraging people to write negative reviews about their business on Yelp!

People Hate Us on Yelp

This tactic (which I mean in the Certeauian sense) simultaneously taps into some reviewers’ creativity and desire to write witty, parodic texts.

Here are some highlights:

Terrible.   They would not allow me to bring my own food from home and enjoy it in their warm and inviting dining room.

The service was way too friendly. I had to take a half day vacation due to the options. Way too authentic and reasonable too. Nothing like Olive Garden where you get all that bread and salad.

I don’t understand how this place is still even open! The place is too clean, there’s tons of alcohol behind the counter, and the food is good?

As one reviewer writes: “Brilliant way to stick it to Yelp.”  But at the same time, this tactic creates a conundrum for those reviewers who really do have a complaint with the establishment, since it may be difficult for readers to discern a “real” negative review from the dozens of “fake” 1-star reviews (many of which are ambivalent in the sentiment they express).

 

Pocket Shakespeare for your Iphone

Creativity

I am always inspired by people who are creative and resourceful, and who make their ideas come alive.

About a year ago, my writer friend Jim set a goal for himself to re-read all of Shakespeare’s plays.  And while he was at it, he decided he would write a short (around 300 words) summary of each.  And if that wasn’t enough, he decided to learn the ins-and-outs of creating an I-phone app at the same time.  The exciting result of this project is Shakespeare 300.

Shakespeare

It’s an I-phone app that provides cool visuals, infographics and overviews of all of Shakespeare’s plays, so you can brush up on plotlines, characters and related trivia – while you’re waiting to get in the door, during intermission, or whenever!

Check it out for more info: http://www.shakespeare300.com/

Social media in the movie “Chef”

Creativity

A couple of weeks ago, I went to go see Chef. I had read a review that described it as “food porn,” so I knew that it would be my kind of movie. It was pretty good (I mean, it’s no cinematic tour de force…but it IS a nice, light, entertaining way to spend 2 hours in a dark and seriously air-conditioned room). Plus the basic message was a pretty easy one to get on board with: Be true to yourself, follow your passion, and you will be rewarded with both professional and personal successes.

What I found most interesting about the film is the key role that social media plays in it. Social media (especially Twitter, but also Youtube, Facebook, Vine, and text messaging) is absolutely central to the narrative arc of the film. In fact, it’s hard to imagine this story working at all without all of these social media elements, which fuel both the film’s “complicating action” as well as its “resolution” (to use some terms from a very well-known sociolinguistic model of narrative structure.) And, hard as it may be to believe, Twitter actually gets more screen time than Scarlett Johansson!

There’s also a lot of metadiscursive “topicalizing” of social media. In other words, the characters TALK about social media throughout the film. Especially the main character, who comes across as though he’s been living in a bubble for the better part of this century, and is just learning about all this “internet stuff” for the very first time. This trope of the 40-something-technologically-out-of-touch-dad learning about the wondrous workings of social media from his pre-teen son did get a bit old for me after a while.

Nevertheless, it’s a cute little movie, and one that reflects how technologically-mediated our lives are at this point in time.